This article is part of a collaborative series commissioned by altMuslimah and Jewschool to promote interfaith dialogue and understanding between Muslim and Jewish communities experiencing a rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Avigayil Halpern: Sarah, something I’ve been thinking a…
The election of Donald Trump and the rise of the #JewishResistance movement has led to an amazing outpouring of Torah -- #TorahForTheResistance.
Right-leaning religious communities often put forth the claim that Jewish women don’t need to perform certain mitzvot, “timebound” ones, because the nature of our physicality is such that we are constantly aware of time — how many euphemisms for menstruation…
My unexpected religious experience in Bethlehem at the separation barrier.
Of late, Rabbi Steven Pruzansky has been roundly and justly criticized by the Jewish media. Within the last few weeks, the rabbi of the 800-member-family Teaneck, NJ, Bnai Jeshurun Orthodox synagogue has been written about in prominent Jewish newspapers; first,…
No woman who has spent time in Orthodox circles is a stranger to the sting of hearing from the other side of the mechitza, “We need one more person for a minyan!” As a student at an Orthodox high school,…
I’m a young woman who visibly wears tzitzit. The public nature of my observance of this mitzvah means that when I leave my home, I become public property to many; in the same way that people feel free to…
Leading tefillah for the first time is scary. Countless bar mitzvah boys, and increasing numbers of bat mitzvah girls, experience this fear as part of a rite of passage; facilitating a community in prayer marks their coming of age, their…